From Nakba to genocide: A Gaza grandmother’s lifetime of loss and resilience
At 95, Fatema Obaid has endured daily Israeli bombardment, starvation and the loss of 70 family members.
Yet the Palestinian grandmother, who survived the 1948 Nakba, refused to leave Gaza City when ordered to do so by the Israeli military during the 2023 genocide.
For her, fleeing again would mark the beginning of a “crueller Nakba” - one she refuses to relive.
“In the first Nakba, it is true that hundreds of thousands lost their land, homes and villages,” Obaid told Middle East Eye.
“But in this Nakba, we have lost an entire history,” she said from an unfinished apartment in western Gaza City, where she is displaced alongside her grandchildren.
Read more: From Nakba to genocide: A Gaza grandmother’s lifetime of loss and resilience
Fatema Obaid, 95, says the current genocide in Gaza is worse than the 1948 Nakba (Hani Abu Rezeq/MEE)